Towards an integrated model for brand adoption: insights from an organismic integration theory

Drawing on organismic integration theory (OIT), this study investigates what kind of motivational regulations (e.g. intrinsic, identified, introjected and external motivation) could influence brand adoption and what kind of advertisement appeals (e.g. hard-sell and soft-sell) could influence consumers' motivational regulations. To this end, participants (n = 657) from Pakistan were recruited, and the hypotheses were tested in the airline industry. Results show that hard-sell appeals had the strongest effect on identified motivation, whereas soft-sell appeals were more effective at capturing consumers' intrinsic motivation. Consumers' intrinsic motivation had the greatest effect on consumer brand adoption. The moderation results revealed that the effects of identified, introjected and external motivations on consumer brand adoption were salient when perceived social influence was higher, but not when social influence was lower. Finally, the authors discuss in depth the implications of these results for theory and practice.